Whiteboards and chalkboards are the ultimate tool. They can help you explain almost anything. They inspire creativity and problem solving. They can even make great surfaces for decoration. And as far as I’m concerned the bigger the better.
The only problem with whiteboards is how much they cost. A 36” x 24” dry erase board on Amazon will run you $36.79 and a 32″x44″ will run you $64.99 and that doesn’t even include shipping. Lets not even talk about if you want something bigger than that.
Imagine being able to have as much whiteboard space as you want whether its at home, your office, or a classroom. After all when you buy a white board, what are you really buying. You’re getting a giant piece of white plastic they may or may not have a place for markers and erasers.
The good news is that there are many ways you can get around this, and for cheap. If you’re not the DIY type the first option is for you.
Whiteboard Wall Decals and Stickies
Peal and stick whiteboard decals and stickies are both cheap and big. This is ideal if you have a chalkboard and want to add a whiteboard. You need only the wall space to stick it.
You should pay attention to weather the board material is a decal (removable) or an all out adhesive.
The board you see here on the left is available on Amazon as of this post. Its labeled as a:
and it will run you $10.99. This one says it’s removable, however, some of the comments say it wasn’t as removable as they would have liked.
If your using this in a classroom, I would advise checking with your administrator to see what they think of wall decals.
This particular wall decal is 3ft wide which isn’t extremely big, but you could buy two of them if you wanted to double the length or height. If that’s too big they sell one that is 36″ x 48″ for $24.99 that might fit your needs.
I also checked writeyboards.com and mywhiteboards.com who both had more selection but for more money. Walmart on the other hand has a 24″ x 36″ board for $16.38.
If you want to go even bigger without adding cost, Amazon has one that is 2ft x 6.5ft (as seen below).
This one does not advertise itself as being removable, however, the picture seems to imply that it is. I would use caution if your worried about scuffing the paint on your walls.
There are also plenty of examples where people in the reviews cut the material to size, so you can feel free to cut it yourself.
The wall decal or sticky option is the fastest way to get a new and giant white board. It also doesn’t require you to be Mr. or Ms. handy in order to put it up. It’s also very cheap.
Hard Board Material
If your more the DIY type, then there are lots of cheap options for you, depending on what you want. Whether its a chalkboard or whiteboard you can do it on your own. If you actually want to purchase a board and put it up yourself, here is a video of a gentlemen who did just that. I chose the video below because he does a walk through at Home Depot, that way you can see where in the store to go.
Here is a link to a $13.47 DPI 47.75-in x 7.98-ft Smooth White Hardboard Wall Panel at Lows if your still not sure what to buy. James (the YouTube video above) made a good point when he said you should take a dry-erase marker to the store and try it out to make sure its going to work.
Painted Boards
If you want to turn a surface you already have into a dry-erase board you can paint the dry-erase surface onto the object of your choice. In the Video below Jamie does a review of different whiteboard paint options.
If you want to keep it old school, you can also paint a chalk board onto your desired surface. Superholly does just that in the YouTube video below.
Painted Magnetic Boards
If you want to go the extra mile and make your board magnetic, then I found two options for you. You can use a magnetic paint like Superholy in the video above, or you can paint your surface onto sheet metal like Handy Mandy below.
From what I was able to find in my research, however, the magnetic paint was not very strong. Don’t expect to hold much up, unless you have really powerful magnets.
There you have it. The cheapest ways to get a giant dry erase board! Let me know what you think in the comments below.
I brief disclaimer: I’m an amazon affiliate which means if you click on the Amazon links in this post, I get a %4 commission if you buy something. Measly I know, but feel free to not go through the links here, and in some cases the things I recommend are not from Amazon anyway.